Randolph-Henry Boys Basketball Drops District Game to Nottoway

CHARLOTTE COURT HOUSE – The Randolph-Henry Varsity Boys basketball team took on Nottoway when they returned from the holiday break and fell by an 86-71 score. The Statesmen started the season off strong in the James River District, but Nottoway took control of the game early and cruised to the win.

The Cougars jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter by a 24-7 margin and extended that to a 46-15 score at the half.  Randolph-Henry Coach Graves stated, “We were averaging giving up less than 50 points in a previous games but we had a problem executing our half court offense and continually turning the ball over.”

The turnovers helped ignite the Cougars’ offense and gave them easy transition buckets.

Early in the third quarter R-H played better and made a run, but Nottoway got hot late in the quarter and was able to stretch their lead back to 30.

The final quarter saw both teams using a mixture of starters and bench players. R-H played well in the final quarter and outscored the Cougars 40-24 in that frame.

The point totals for the Statesmen were: Jones 23, Pettus 21, Pugh 12, Boyd 6, Roberts 4, Puryear 3 and Brantley 2.

The loss drops R-H into a tie for second place with a record of 4-1, 5-4.  Coach Graves stated, “I think a lot of our problem was the inability to get everyone to practice over the holiday break.  We haven’t had a full compliment of varsity players since Dec. 14 so I believe the layoff was a factor.  Hopefully we can rebound from this loss this week.”